Familiar Activities at MOXI- Juliana

One idea that I found interesting from Sue Allen’s “Designs for Learning: Studying Science Museum Exhibits That Do More Than Entertain,” was the idea of familiar activities that lead to immediate apprehendability of an exhibit. Allen gave three examples of familiar activities in the Exploratorium- making a complex machine work, a competition, and watching and waiting.

For the familiar activity of making a complex machine work, Allen uses the example of the exhibit “Bike Cycle,” in which hydraulic pistons controlled by four buttons take the place of major leg muscles. Having the challenge of trying to press the buttons at the right times in order to make the pedals move helped to engage visitors on a deeper level. This reminded me of Reactable, where guests have the challenge of figuring out what each of the different pieces do if you put them on the table, and how to make a complete soundtrack. I have observed many guests spend a very long time at this exhibit attempting the challenge of making music with this unfamiliar instrument.

Allen also mentions competition as a familiar activity to guests. Two exhibits at MOXI came to mind with this familiar activity- Quiet Quest and Mindball. In Quiet Quest, guests compete against each other one at a time by walking across a rocky pathway while trying to be as quiet as possible, and whoever has the lower score wins. This design encourages guests to keep trying the challenge over and over again to get the lowest possible score, keeping them engaged longer. At Mindball, guests compete against each other in order to push the ball towards the other player with their minds. When guests first approach Mindball and see two other guests playing against each other, they immediately become intrigued and watch to see who will win. Competition and races are familiar activities that allow guests to become more engaged with the exhibit and encourage them to make predictions and come up with explanations for how to win the competition.

Lastly, watching and waiting as a familiar activity was another example that led to immediate apprehendability of an exhibit. One exhibit in MOXI that is more of a “watching and waiting” activity is the Sound Machine. Although this is one of the less interactive exhibits that guests can observe, guests are still drawn in to the machine to observe the path of the ball and where the sounds are coming from. So when guests wait long enough to see a ball hit a certain sound component in the sound machine, they are “rewarded” by discovering the source of the sound. This familiar activity encourages guests to spend more time at this exhibit and engage on a deeper level.